UPDATE 1/16/2011 – Gallery updated to include almost all of the images posted by NASA through the end of 2011.
The MODIS Satellite Gallery collection from the MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC contains about 3,300 satellite images obtained from NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites overlaid onto Google Earth. These satellites capture natural [...]
The National Atlas of the United States displays several hundred layers of GIS data for the United States. The data is organized into the following categories.
Agriculture (Information about Farms, Livestock, and Crops) Environment (Information about hazardous sites) People (Information about crime rates, economy, food stamps, jobs, mortality rates, population density, etc.) Biology [...]
The United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service has compiled detailed soils data for approximately 95 percent of the counties in the United States. The soils data contains information such as the texture, drainage, depth, and chemical characteristics of the soil. This data can be accessed by reviewing hard copy Soil [...]
The GlobCover Land Cover Map was created by the European Space Agency GlobCover Project. The map displays land classification information for most of the Earth’s surface at a resolution of approximately 20 acres (~9 hectacres) per pixel. Each pixel is color coded to represent one of 22 different land classifications, which are based [...]
These maps show forest canopy heights throughout the Earth and the United States. The data was obtained from NASA’s ICESat, Terra, and Aqua satellites and processed by Michael Lefsky. The shades of green show the height of the forest canopy from 0 to 230 feet. For any patch of forest, the height shown [...]
The NASA Earth Observations website has dozens of layers of global scientific data formatted for viewing with Google Earth.
The data is grouped into Ocean, Atmosphere, Energy, Land and Life categories. The layers are too numerous to list, but they include:
Sea Surface Temperature Chlorophyll Concentration (MODIS) Snow Cover & Sea Ice Extent [...]
Major Land Resource Areas (MLRA) and Land Resource Regions (LRR) are areas of the United States with similar geography (physiography, climate, geology, etc.), as defined by the US Department of Agriculture and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. These areas are used for large scale interstate planning. There are approximately 280 MLRAs in the United [...]
The Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) sensor collects cloud and other data from several satellites orbiting the Earth. The University of Wisconsin has created an archive of AVHRR false color imagery dating back to 2007. In addition, they have created a network link that updates automatically every day with the most recent satellite [...]